The husband wasn't up for it, but my son, Ian, said "sure, why not" so we set the alarm for 8 am Sunday morning and headed down.
I knew eventually the exit to route 2 from 280 was going to be closed due to construction on 280. Sure enough, it was. What Ian and I found interesting is the detour took us south about 3 miles to an exit, turn left, then right back onto 280 north. We both got a chuckle at the double back detour, and it only added another 10 minutes to the trip.
As we were traveling on Route 2, just before the power plant, some fellow in a silver Honda (or Hundai?) came speeding up to pass the several cars behind me and one or two in front. He must've been going close to 80 mph on a road where we were traveling 60, with a speed limit of 55. Michigan license plate, so I figured he was headed to CP. Considering where we were and the time, the fellow had more than enough time to reach CP for ERT, so I'm not sure of what his hurry was. It's people like that who cause accidents.
Anyway, by the time we hit the back way (we take route 6) to the causeway, guess who we find just in front of us? The silver car that passed us way back on Route 2. Go figure. I was very tempted to make a comment to the driver as he parked next to us, but I refrained.
We got to the gates just as the National Anthem was being played, and headed in at 11 am for our ERT on MF. Got three rides, the first a little slow, before moving on to Mantis.
We do not ride Mantis unless there is very little line. Since it was a walk on, we waited a little longer for the front. Ride Op John was doing a great job, continuously informing peeps to "stand, do not bounce, sit or bend your legs" (two or 3 times as each train was loading). Still, rows had to be unlocked and riders repositioned on each train. Twice the second train waited on the brake run for the loading train to be released.
The ride itself provided a bit of airtime because of the slow movement through the inversion elements. But one ride is enough for me.
Ian noticed no line for Power Tower, so we bypassed Draggin' Iron and went to PT for the drop tower first. I'm proud to say I kept my eyes open the entire time, and actually ENJOYED the ride. I think my resolve to overcome my fear of drop rides this season has paid off. We walked back around for a space shot ride, and then walked back to check on the construction.
I'm no engineer, but it certainly looks to me that the tower is for a top hat element. There are large track supports leading up to the left side of the tower now, and definitely places for track to attach on both sides of the tower supports. That tower is HUGE looking at it from the midway. It was difficult, though, trying to imagine more than a simple launch, up the top hat and back down to the station. If they are adding other elements, I can't for the life of me figure out where they will be.
Moving on, we decided to take in Gemini next. One of the things that I appreciated was CP still ran two trains on Gemini. They closed off the middle rows, so we rode in the front of Blue for our first ride. I introduced myself to Brent who said it would likely be a walk on day all day long. Gemini was running fast, and with no trims in the helix. We ran around again for a ride on the red train, and then headed down to Maggie.
Magnum, another walk on, was also running fast and trimless, meaning a bit of thigh banging through the bunny hops, but not so bad in the second car. We ran around for another ride in front. OUCH! We were literally thrown upwards on the second bunny hop, and I had to laugh at the on-ride photo. Ian was grimacing slightly, but the fellow behind us in 1-3 had a look of sheer pain on his face.
By this time, we were getting hungry, so we had a burger at Coasters before moving on to Wicked Twister.
We waited 15 minutes for our first ride in the next to last row. Still my favorite spot to ride. We walked back around for what would have been a 10 minute wait for the second from front row, but the restraint release for the front car (rows 1 & 2) stopped working. Everyone had to clear those two rows so we rode in row 3. Ian decided to not put his OSTR down as tightly for the second ride, and as we shot back through the station and up the back tower, he was thrown into the restraint with a loud "OOOOHHH!!". We shot up the front tower and Ian said "man...this is going to HURT" as we dropped back down and up the back tower again. As he limped off the ride, he explained what he'd done. Seems the family jewels took the brunt of it.
We walked over to Disaster Transport, and I ALMOST had Ian into the Pharoah's Tomb haunted house. It was kinda hot and stuffy inside, and there was a line, so he turned and walked out. In his words, "haunted houses are lame". Instead, we opted for Raptor.
Raptor was a walk on, so we waited the extra two trains for a front seat ride. I was hoping to see Raptor Jo working, but she wasn't there. Instead, the ride op on the microphone (hometown of Lansing, MI), was harassing the U of Michigan people with his "Go State!" yell. After our fast ride, I hopped off the train with a "go blue!" which was countered. *grin*
We took a second ride in the back, and afterwards, sat down for a rest. I could tell Ian was losing steam. He's got the attention span of a goldfish. But it was only 3:30 pm so I dragged him to Blue Streak for a somewhat disappointing ride. It seemed to be running much slower than normal.
Once I got Ian going again, we headed down to MF which had 30 minutes listed on the queue sign. We opted to wait what ended up being only 20 minutes for a very fast ride in the yellow train.
I steered Ian towards Frontier Trail, and insisted we go into the U.R. Dade Mortuary. I have to admit, haunted houses don't scare me much. Ian was jumped at several times to which he replied "nice try". The best part was the room with the spinning, psychadelic tube that was very disorienting.
Since I'd gotten him back to Frontier Town, he agreed to ride Mean Streak if we could leave afterwards. They were only running two trains, but it was a walk on regardless. I'd hoped they'd let off the trims, but was disappointed they were in full force. One thing I noticed is the ops no longer say "welcome back riders, how was your ride?" Must be hard to be a ride op on a once great ride that people find disappointing now.
I didn't really want to end my day on a disappointing note, but I did promise Ian that MS would be our last ride, so we headed home.
All in all, it was a great day. The weather was perfect, and we got a lot of riding in. And many of the ride ops were having almost as much fun as the GP.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
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Brent Haley
Gemini Crew '02
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